Here’s What HTC Is Showing on Vive Pro And More At MWC 2018

We’re only two months in but 2018 has already been a big year for the HTC Vive with the reveal of the Vive Pro. The upgraded headset is getting its latest showing at the 2018 Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona this week alongside a suite of experiences.

As with the booth at last year’s show, HTC is showing off much more than just VR games at the event this week. For example, Immersive VR Education is there showcasing its virtual collaboration tool, Engage, which allows people to host lectures, lessons and workshops inside of VR. VR training platform Innoactive is also showcasing its partnership with Volkswagen with its app that allows employees to practice working on virtual cars.

If you’ve been on social media today you’ve also probably noted the giant hot air balloon at Vive’s booth that people are jumping into. This is for Janimation VR, which is showcasing its creative tools with a virtual trip that uses haptics. The ever-popular VR vertigo simulator, Richie’s Plank Experience is also there to show off Vive Pro’s improved clarity, while soccer simulation Mi Hiepa Sports uses the Vive Trackers for realistic control. Sim for Health is also showcasing its medical VR training tools.

As for the more playful side of VR, there’s a chance to experience Arizona Sunshine inside the Vive Pro along with another showing of Vive Studios’ own Virtual Sports, while Viveport VR and Vive Video are also on display. Finally, you’ll also be able to check out the new Vive Wireless Adapter at the booth.

True, we’ve heard of many of these experiences before, but HTC is showing many of them on the Vive Pro this year. That means they’re refreshed via the headset’s 3K display and can be enjoyed with built-in headphones and an improved design. Vive Pro is expected to launch as a singular headset for existing Vive owners in the coming weeks, while a full kit with the required SteamVR peripherals will be arriving later this year. A price has not yet been announced.

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Will there be resolution options for VR games after the pro has launched?
And will exiting games all need patches to get the benefit from the higher resolution? 🤔

HybridEnergy

No, you don’t need to patch the games. The games can actually run at monitor level resolutions, the head-sets just can’t do it.

Joshwa Sanders

HTC needs to announce the price and release date now. Their radio silence since CES has almost killed my desire to impulse-buy the Pro.

jarjarplinks

Two possibilities. 1. They haven’t decided on the final price. 2. It’s going to be expensive so why bother getting early negative press, or give the competition any advance notice. Lets face it, it’s going to be expensive. The regular Vive is hardly a bargain, or are buying replacement parts for the Vive. I love my Vive and certain I afford the upgrade to the Pro, but I just don’t feel it’s advanced enough past the current spec to make it really a must buy.

Smokey_the_Bear

I concur. It should launch being wireless, right outta the box, not an extra add-on at a later date.

Zerofool

When they announce it, they’ll have to also specify the recommended hardware. If somebody missed this tiny detail, the currently recommended GTX 970/RX 480 won’t be able to run smoothly all VR applications at the new resolution, you’ll need a GPU upgrade if you’re using these (unless you want to run VR apps in the older lower resolution (same text legibility as before, etc.) and only benefit from the lower SDE provided by the new screens).

I’m sure nobody will be happy to see the $1000+ GTX 1080Ti listed there (or whatever they decide is good enough), so I think they’re waiting for Nvidia to announce their newest line of GeForce cards at the end of March (according to the rumor mill). The new card with graphics horsepower equivalent/similar to the 1080Ti (or whatever) will be cheaper (although, initially it will be as hard to find in stock as the current gen, if not harder) and this apparently won’t turn off as much potential “average consumer” buyers (enterprises like Audi, BMW etc. won’t care obviously :)), so here’s another possible cause for the delay.

HybridEnergy

It’s great seeing it in action but they gave us an early confident Q1 availability answer. This is important, it’s no coincidence why Samsung dropped their mixed reality HMD price by $100 so early in Q1. If they plan on a pre-order phase than at this point people may not get these units till earliest of mi- April Q2. Last hope is a very short pre-order phase or just an over-night straight release, but they are clearly finished consumer products. Are they afraid of letting us see the price ?

Hallelujah49

It will be nice to see the buying options, especially for those of us looking to upgrade from the original. Hopefully they allow a headset only option for a reasonable price. If not, I’ll just buy the wireless adapter and stick with my old one.